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"Author: The JT LeRoy Story"
U.S. Documentary Competition
HHH
For all the wild things JT LeRoy wrote in his best-selling novels and short stories, nothing tops how JT came into existence — a story that director Jeff Feuerzeig captures with energetic wit in "Author: The JT LeRoy Story." LeRoy, you may remember was the teen-age literary phenom who in 1999 published two books, the novel "Sarah" and the short-story collection "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things," that provided seemingly autobiographical sketches of growing up in West Virginia with a prostitute mom. The stories, and the whole notion of JT himself, were actually the creation of then-34-year-old author/musician Laura Albert, who devised alternate personae for therapeutic and literary purposes. But when JT became an in-demand author, Albert explains in this mostly first-person account, a scheme was hatched to invent a JT, with the help of Albert's sister-in-law, Savannah Knoop. Feuerzeig applies dynamic visuals to the treasure trove of recorded phone calls that document the rise of JT and the enthusiasm of his many celebrity friends (namely Billy Corgan and Courtney Love). But the bulk of this fascinating story is told by Albert herself, who's quite candid about the deception and her reasons for it.
— Sean P. Means
"Author: The JT LeRoy Story" will screen again at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival: Thursday, 3 p.m., Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room; Saturday, noon, Temple Theatre, Park City.